TBG’s 2017 big give

We did it again, friends! So much hard work went into planning each event and it paid off because we had such a great time and got so much accomplished.

Our focus this year was Shelter, but the common theme for the day was that we all got wet! Most groups just had a soggy start with light rain, but San Antonio’s project was completely rained out. Houston and Fort Lauderdale were on boats in Galveston Bay and in the Everglades.

Here is a list of the projects our offices tackled!

Austin

Community Table Beautification at Community First! Village

Fort Lauderdale

Trash clean-up in Everglades Wildlife Management Area

Houston

Galveston Bay Reef Restoration

Dallas

In My Shoes landscape masterplan and implementation

Fort Worth

Fort Worth Nature Center Native Plant Restoration

San Antonio

Prairie restoration at Mitchell Lake Audubon Center Native Gardens was rained out so they secured supplies for Puerto Rican hurricane victims.

Keep reading for a few highlights from our second annual firm-wide volunteer day.

The Houston group moved 6 tons of oyster shells in 375 bags into Galveston bay to build 50’ of reef. The boat carried 20 bags at a time and the crew slowly distributed them in a pyramid form underwater.

Ahead of our Houston office’s Big Give day, Jessie Jacobs coordinated a design competition in the Houston office to help Catherine, a young Venture Scout, with her capstone project. Her vision was to build a shade structure for the many volunteers who work on the bay and she chose Sarah Zelenak’s shade structure design. Wes, Matt and Amanda helped with construction details, material selection and a sketch-up model. A highlight of the morning was seeing the realized vision for the shade structure which was built by the Venture Scout before the Big Give day.

TBG Dallas had a most memorable volunteer event. Almost everyone was there to implement the landscape upgrades that a small group designed prior to the event. The plans included foundation planting, birdhouses and garden planter boxes. After a hard day’s work of building, digging, planting and mulching everyone painted birdhouses. Even though the day started with rain there were lots of laughs, great conversations and only a few blisters and incidences of poison ivy.

Fort Lauderdale joined with other volunteers and Fish and Wildlife staff to clean up trash in the Everglades Wildlife Management area. They focused on one area and went out on an airboat. They had a rainy start but managed to fill an entire truck and trailer with over 6,000 pounds of trash that washed up during the hurricanes. It seemed like mostly beer bottles and was way more than they expected.

Like the Dallas crew, Austin designed a landscape plan for the Big Give event. Their work focused on the Community Table at Community First! Village. The Community Table is a covered picnic pavilion where they host many celebrations at the Village. The rain cooled the crew off as they distributed DG in a future food truck area and enhanced the arrival sequence to the Community Table with native plant beds. Gary, a resident at Community First! Village, was the foreman for the day and everyone enjoyed getting to hear his story and appreciated his guidance throughout the day.

At the Fort Worth Nature Center the crew of 7 did the work of a huge team transplanting aquatic plants on the edge of Lake Worth. It was a muddy, good time for everyone.

Puerto Rico Rises is a US nonprofit that collects supplies and distributes them directly to the people that need them most. Luckily the San Antonio crew was able to coordinate a last-minute volunteer day with them when their habitat garden planting activity at Mitchell Lake Audubon Center was rained out.

The Big Give 2017 was a great way to spend a Friday and made us all remember that we work with fun people and when we come together we can accomplish so much.

by Amy Rampy | TBG Community Investment Lead